The Oilers enter Nashville in the midst of a dangerous dance routine; one step forward, two steps sideways and one step back. They wrapped up a crucial four-game homestand with only one win and capped it off with a dreadful performance against the Blues.

Their only victory came against the Predators, and if the Oilers have any hope of staying in the playoff race, they will need a victory in Nashville tonight.

The Predators handed the Oilers their worst loss of the season, 6-0, back on March 8th, so if you combine that with their woeful effort on Saturday you'd expect the Oilers to put forth a much better effort tonight.

LINEUP

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins took the morning skate and he will play. In order to get him on the roster the Oilers had to send Teemu Hartikainen down to OKC.

And with RNH coming back Lennart Petrell will come out of the lineup. I don't think the line combinations matter as much as the Oilers finding a combination of hustle, smarts, effort and consistency.

YAKUPOV ICETIME

I asked Ralph Krueger to share his thoughts on how he uses Nail Yakupov in the 3rd period.

JG: Are you trying to protect Yakupov late in games, or are you concerned about his defensive awareness?

RK: He has our confidence. He’s an 18 year old, he’s going to be playing in this role, probably very similar, for the rest of the year. Not For lack of ability or will, he’s very responsible without the puck now. He’s trying to play the team game all of the time. We’re happy with him, but he’s an 18 year old and down the stretch the hierarchy has it in a way that we have more experience in other positions and other players. When you’re reduced to six to nine forwards and you’re trying to close games up and take them either into overtime or finish them with a lead, he understands that it’s just not his time yet. It was no different when we went back a few years to the roles that Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle had to now being able to play in those minutes.

But it’s nothing against Nail, we all know that putting a player of that age in the lineup has its unique challenges, and I think that we’ve been able to use him very well and we’re happy with the minutes that he’s played.

JG: What about in overtime when it’s 4-on-4?

RK: We just have a lot of confidence in our penalty shooting ability. We’ve had some troubles 4-on-4 during the season, so we did have him playing if you think back. And there were some 4-on-4 breakdowns that cost us games that were extremely painful, and so we’ve kind of gone with more experience there. Those are gut feelings, whether you have 8 guys, or whether you end up going with 6. And he just wasn’t in the top 6 mix the last game, but he could be the next one. There’s nothing wrong with Nail playing there, but there’s a defensive element there and a risk reward. I’ve been in situations before where you play three forwards and one defenceman and just go for it.

But again, we believe in our ability also to win in penalty shots and we just felt the way that that game had been going, and the way that San Jose had been pushing us through the last part of the game that our chances might have been better. But we did play one of our best 4-on-4 periods, I thought, this season. They had 0 shots on our net and we had a couple of scoring chances, so I thought it was actually pretty good overtime period.

JG: How do you balance the feeling as a coach from game to game? You mentioned how right now you’ve got some veteran guys, and when it’s a tight game you'd lean towards them. Against San Jose after that shift in the third period when he had two big hits and got the crowd and bench energized, yet he didn’t see the ice again. How do you balance it? Is it just a gut feel, do you have a plan going into the 3rd period, or do you go from game to game and switch it that easy?

RK: I have all of the numbers and I’m a numbers man. I have them in my head and I’m working them down as the game evolves. I’ve got nine forwards in my head. On the one side I’ve got the green side; that means we need goals. The other side is the red side, we’re trying to shut a game or close it down, I’ve got nine forwards in my head and then going down to the last four minutes I’ve got six forwards. It’s a game to game thing. It really truly is conversations that we have with Bucky and Freddy between periods coming from above. It is final conversations with Steve (Smith) while we’re in those TV timeouts so I get some input from around me, and then the stomach just really takes you down the stretch. And you go with the players who really feel good that night for that situation. "

Yakupov was on the ice for two OT losses, on February 04th and 06th. He did lose his man, Tanev, vs. the Canucks but he made no mistake on the Jagr game-winner. We can agree or disagree with Krueger's responses, but I respect him for taking the time to express his thoughts on Yakupov. I do agree with the coach on bringing him along slowly in regulation, but considering Krueger admitted Yakupov has worked extremely hard at becoming more responsible at ES, I'd look at giving him a shift in OT when there is more room to be creative.

QUICK HITS

Why is Sam Gagner having his best NHL season? A big reason is because of a guy named Andy O'Brien. Read more here.

If you honestly believe the Oilers are better off moving out veterans and replacing them with unproven youth, then you can expect the Oilers to remain near the bottom of the western conference moving forward. The Oilers need to find PROVEN NHL players, not more "maybe," "might be," or "what if" type players.

I'm not saying the Oilers can't move a veteran or two, but the return is likely more prospects and picks. These trades won't fix the Oilers' problems immediately. The Oilers need more experience, more consistency in their competitiveness and they need some size/skill in their top nine.

The Oilers will be competitive when their best players are equal to the best players on the other teams. The 4th line doesn't win games for the Penguins, Blackhawks or Ducks. Their best players do, and until the Oilers best players are mature and have more experience the Oilers won't win. That isn't a knock on their young kids, it is just a fact.

Case in point. The Capitals have won 5 of 7 and are suddenly two points out of the playoffs. Alex Ovechkin has 7 goals and 11 points in those 7 games. To win consistently in the NHL you need production from your top lines, top defenders and goalies. Focusing on the woes of the Oilers 4th line is a great distraction, but it isn't the main problem in Edmonton.

A stellar quote from Ovechkin courtesy of Corey Masisak from NHL.com: "Right now I'm scoring goals and I'm king of the world. Couple weeks I was almost in the toilet. Maybe [they] forgot to flush me."

Today is the last day to help my hometown, New Sarepta, win the right to host a concert, but more importantly raise money to build a new arena. Do me a favour and take 30 seconds and vote here for New Sarepta. Thanks.

The Oilers play their remaining 18 games in a span of 34 days. They have four sets of back-to-back games and they only get two days off between games three times. The Oilers will have to play unbelievably well to have a shot at the playoffs.

If you were GM of the Oilers what moves would you make? Now you can show your intellect with www.websimhockey.com. It is a 100% web-based, multi-player hockey simulator. You take on the role of the General Manager of a virtual hockey team. You manage the various aspects of your team (drafts, trades, lineups, coach strategies, negotiations and contracts signings, arena construction, tickets, beer, hot dog and parking costs, and much more). Properly managing your team and its finances will ensure your success. The first 12 Nations readers who email wsh.info@websimhockey.comwith "Nations promo" as the subject line will get a free trial. Good luck.

This is an awesome beer commercial. I'm sure most of you have a buddy that reminds you of the guy brushing his teeth.

<strong>TONIGHT.....</strong>

TONIGHT...

GAME DAY PREDICTION: In the last three meetings between these teams in Nashville one of them scored six goals. The Oilers got blanked 6-0 this year, but won 6-3 and 6-2 last year. I'm a fan of offence so I'm hoping that trend continues. The Oilers surprise us with a 6-3 win.

OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Ales Hemsky scores twice thus heating up discussions over whether the Oilers should trade him before April 3rd.

NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: During intermission Sportsnet will feature "trade watch," and instead of Ryan Jones' name coming across the prompter it will read Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Even though the hosts will say it was an error, many will take to twitter and blogs suggesting destinations for Nugent-Hopkins. Seriously, some will believe that moving RNH would be a good move.

One of Canada's most versatile sports personalities. Jason hosts The Jason Gregor Show, weekdays from 2 to 6 p.m., on TSN 1260, and he writes a column every Monday in the Edmonton Journal. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/JasonGregor

You may be right, but teams looking to pick up a player like Hemsky are looking at making a playoff run. As per the recent trades these teams are not going to be sending roster players in the other direction, It just dosen't make sense.

I am wondering about Krueger's comments re: liking their chances in the shootout and why they play OT to hold off until the shootout.

This year, the Oilers have:

2 OT wins

4 OT losses

3 SO losses

2 SO wins

That means they've gotten 4 points out of a possible 11 that they and other teams would fight for in OT (excluding the point they already earned from regulation).

This doesn't even include the fact they've given up a point in regulation in the games where they tried to hold a 1 goal lead, or emphasize the fact that when they don't gain that 1 point, they're also giving away a point.

So I'm kind of wondering where the coaching staff is coming from on this one, and this is from a guy who likes Krueger...

I do support the decision to not play Yak in 4 on 4 though, even though Eberle's penchant for breaking up ice before we even have possession might deserve equal questioning as Yakupov's odd passes through the middle of the zone.

Their 4th line doesn't lose them games because their top two lines outscore the opponents. Go look at Pittsburgh's 4th line production. Go look at their +/- and their corsi. They aren't great, but they are winning due to great top-end talent.

I'm not sure where you get your stats. I don't buy into +/-. Try;
http://www.hockeyabstract.com/playerusagecharts

While I'm all for moving a couple of pieces, the plan at the beginning of year was to make sure these young kids are playing in meaningful games down the stretch. That won't happen if we blow out half the roster. I'd keep Belanger just because this team sucks whenever a centre goes down to injury or illness. Move Whitney, move Hemsky if somebody offers an Oiler roster need.

I haven't looked at the numbers, but is Dubnyk better when Khabibulin is around? I do know that was a tough stretch when both Khabi and Horc were out of the lineup. Keep Khabi if it helps D.D.

Gregor, I think we all realize quality veteran players are needed for this team to move forward but the problem is trying to find another team willing to give those players up without us trading Eberle or one of the other young guys! It's not an easy landscape for Tamby & the management group to get something done! Getting Fistric & Brown has been good moving forward, let's hope there's a few more of those on the horizon!

The Truth is that unless Tambo can absolute fleece someone, not named Dean lombardi. Then they will have to trade an Eberle or Yakapov. IMO HAll, RNH, and J.Shultz are the only players that I would not trade.

How many teams that have finished 30th, 30th, 29th and 27th? don't have the cap space to be players in the FA market?

And, more importantly, why?

That has no bearing on the point of trading veterans for draft picks. Of course the Oilers can trade some veterans, my point was that alone won't make them better in the immediate future.

And the Oilers could go sign two big name UFAs, but I don't see any 27-29 year olds worth it... Then they'd have to move one of their kids, which wouldn't be the worst scenario...but that is a completely different conversation.

@Gregor, that is so cool that you are promoting WebSimHockey. I have been using it for about 2 years now and it is awesome.

For anyone that is interested I would highly recommend it. They give attributes to players based on different stats and are able to simulate games based on actual hockey stats. They are even licenced by the NHLPA.

The last 3 entry drafts, Lowe and Tambellini have taken all their wares with them and tried to improve this hockey club. Outside of the fab 5, there is little worth ship! Nobody else wants them so we're stuck with them. This is why the losing is the best option is still in play for management.

One year later the Oilers still have so few chips in play that are worth anything. Hemsky,Smid,Gagner,Paajarvi, their first in 2014 and unfortunately, one of the fab 5. From this they need a legitimate top pairing blueliner, a top 6 forward (may already be addressed with the Oilers inline for another top 3 selection in June again) as well as an established goalie to push Dubnyk, or push him out.

That Hemsky along with Eberle offer from Boston for that second selection in 2010 doesn't look so bad now. If management could only turn the clock back on that proposal. Hemsky,Eberle and Edmontons first in 2014 might even get Poiles attention. If not, maybe with 83 and 89 having decent yrs, this summers draft won't be just another babystep. A rapidly fading Ryan Clowe is the last thing Edmonton needs.

That has no bearing on the point of trading veterans for draft picks. Of course the Oilers can trade some veterans, my point was that alone won't make them better in the immediate future.

And the Oilers could go sign two big name UFAs, but I don't see any 27-29 year olds worth it... Then they'd have to move one of their kids, which wouldn't be the worst scenario...but that is a completely different conversation.

So, what you're effectively sating is the Oilers have no chance of improving except through the draft.

Amazingly, other teams like Toronto, Minnesota, Montreal, and Los Angeles have been able to accomplish their improvement through smart trades and FA acquisitions.

Putting Potter in ahead of Peckham speaks volumes about this organization. Why is Peckham on this team if he is not going to get any time to play, it defies both logic and common sense. Potter brings NOTHING to the table, period. At least Peck's can throw a check and maybe piss somebody off once in a while.

This team needs to clean house. If Belanger, Smyth or Potter are still here next year then everyone needs to get fired. The so-called veterans here are a joke, you may as well trade them for picks now because they arent helping the team anyways.

Please tell me why this organization continues to place Yakopov in positions of failure!! and Why Ryan Smyth is an option for top 6 play... what in the world has he shown this season to warrant top 6 play.

I can have patience for the kids making mistakes along the way but placed in the positions where they are supposed to play!

What is a complete waste of time is messing with that to give a 37-8 year old player who has been signed for one year to many and shown nothing - extremely useful time in the top 6.

Petrell should have stayed in Smyth should have sat out and continue to sit out and be the occasional depth forward who plays when someone is injured.

That has no bearing on the point of trading veterans for draft picks. Of course the Oilers can trade some veterans, my point was that alone won't make them better in the immediate future.

And the Oilers could go sign two big name UFAs, but I don't see any 27-29 year olds worth it... Then they'd have to move one of their kids, which wouldn't be the worst scenario...but that is a completely different conversation.

So what are they supposed to do then? Just stand around and hope another Shultz lands in their lap? Trading veterans for veterans? Our veterans suck, how can we get proven guys back? Seriously, what is the plan?

Thank the hockey-gods but we need NHL veterans, not more picks and prospects.

In fact, Tambi should be on the phone selling marginal farm players like Hamilton and Plante to any suckers, er... I mean... GMs willing to send back an NHL veteran or two while the prospects have some value.

Also, Hemsky is under contract for one more year so unless someone is prepared to trade a veteran centre who can play top 6 minutes or a veteran puck-moving defenceman in the mold of a young Gonchar, there's no need to keep bringing his name into discussions. Ditto for Gagner, who is growing by leaps and bounds this year. And as for Horcoff, no team will take his cap hit so don't waste your breath on rumors involving him.

If the Oil are going to move any veterans, it will likely be players in the last year of their contracts before becoming UFA's like Khabibulin, Jones, Smid or Whitney, and frankly, we should look at resigning Smid long term and Jones to another two or three year deal. Otherwise, we have little to nothing to offer other teams other than be a home to salary-dumped players.

Unless the Oilers end up with a top 3 pick this year. IMO that's a trade piece.

The way things are shaping up at home the Oilers will wind up 25-27th. Their play at home is what will define them this season. Awful can't describe their play at home. They are crippling themselves.

Gregor speaks about getting legitimate NHL players onto the roster.Define for me what that IMPLIES about the players on the current Oilers roster. Also what that implies about the managemnt and the coaching when it came to choosing this years final roster before the season began.

Define `legitamite`NHL player.Example of such and who on the current roster is not such. I think that we need to start there if we are going to start talking about this roster should look like moving forward.

I'm all for veterans complimenting the youth.........but veterans with skill. I still fail to see how Horcoff, Belenger, Smyth, Petrell.......make us a more competitive team.

I could think of at least 100 veterans on other teams I would have over ours. It's exactly this kind of thinking that got us here in the first place.

As for RK, obviously all of his motivational skills have amounted to nothing. He is trying desperately to create a system ( mostly on the fly) that will work for the players we have. I see them all lining up on the center line pretending they are not playing the nuteral zone trap.

May RK should try the Chris Farley motivational speech and move these guys into a van down by the river!

Katz will be spending a lot of money this summer, he doesn't want to Yakupov to meet his bonuses and have to spend even more. He ordered Mac to order Krug not go give Yak a lot of opportunities to put up points, that is why they feed this phantom expierence story to the media and the fans.

Gagner's article link is a joke.

*Iginla will be signing with the Oilers in the summer for two years at $4 the first year and 3.75 the next.

I was talking about moving out unproductive vets and replacing them with better ones.

But you can't add players to a roster than is choked with flotsam and jetsam.

Moving unproductive vets and replacing with better ones is easily said but not so easily accomplished. You never get something for nothing,so to get a quality vet you need to give quality back or overpay as a UFA.

So, what you're effectively sating is the Oilers have no chance of improving except through the draft.

Amazingly, other teams like Toronto, Minnesota, Montreal, and Los Angeles have been able to accomplish their improvement through smart trades and FA acquisitions.

You're calling for status quo when it obviously is not working.

A quick scan of the Kings roster shows 11 of their players were drafted including key players such a doughty, brown. kopitar, clifford quick and bernier. 8 aquired by trade including key players such as richards, carter, williams. greene stoll and penner (he was a key last year). The only free agent of significance is Scuderi. Smart trades have helped the Kings but a succession of good early draft picks set the table.

I won't look at the other teams mentioned, but I suspect the story will be similar. You need good home grown talent to fill in around.

So, what you're effectively sating is the Oilers have no chance of improving except through the draft.

Amazingly, other teams like Toronto, Minnesota, Montreal, and Los Angeles have been able to accomplish their improvement through smart trades and FA acquisitions.

You're calling for status quo when it obviously is not working.

Where did I say they should stick to status quo? I said they can change low-end guys, but that doesn't alter the major weaknesses of the team. They have to switch key parts of their roster, not edge guys, if they want to improve.

Toronto hasn't made the playoffs in 7 years and now they are great. Okay.

Montreal missed one year...they didn't trade away veterans for picks, and have those picks help them. They signed Prust, brought in two rookies, shipped Cole for Ryder and got a healthy Markov.

So your comparables have no bearing on your strategy to replace perimeter vets with better perimeter veterans. And unless the Oilers get vets who can play key roles, they won't improve very quickly. You need vets who can make a difference not just 4th line guys or 3rd pairing defenders.

So Ill just leave this here, Sharks traded Murray to the Pens for 2 2nd round picks.....was Dithers even looking for a trade like that!!? I know the Oilers have Fistric and Peckham(in the press box) but to get a guy like Murray from the Sharks for that!! ffs Tambolini!!

Taylor Hall needs to mix it up and attack the middle once in a while , there is no rule that says he cant switch spots with his center, we arent using him properly unless he can attack with his speed from other areas, same with Hemmer, they need to attack from the middle to leave better rebounds and present a different look. We cant keep seeing long wristers that rnd up in wasted possesions, we need shots from the middle right at the goalie and we need to attack those rebounds.

The refs are giving us a fighting chance and are calling balanced calls, we need to be aggressive and keep the pedal down, the penaltys will balance out and the more we take the more the Preds will get, and we want to be on the PP as much as we can , aggressive play works for us tonight with the way the refs are calling them, nice and balanced. Now we just need to force the issue and not worry about takeing one because we know there will be a fast balancing call and we will get our own PP.

We might as well ask J Schultz to take at least 30% of his rushes all the way to the bank tonight, he needs to be utilised more often. Ask him to take it in fast and to make the first give and go pass and recieve it on net.

Ebbs needs to take the exact same lane and feed thaat d-man the elbows big time just to make a point.

We need our d-men to aggressively skate the puck out and have the second d-man follow up supporting, but we need to immediatly put our heads down and sprint upice to counter theit 3 man attack on the forcheck, they are also dumping in softly to time themselves, so we need to sprint it up at least fifteen feet and then make a breakout pass, maybe 20 ft up them pass if its clear, but we need to set them back on the forcheck with immediate forward puck movement from behind our net.

We need to use the give and go, they have excellent lateral support in the d-zone so we need to use the give and go to make them adjust so we can catch them in transition and break their lateral support. We need to attack at different levels .
And we need to stop trying to hit the backdoor guy with the rebound from that stupid wrister I keep seeing from Halls line.
Attack them down the middle useing the give and go with short crisp passes. Then repeat.

Ha ha ha ha. We wont make it to the shootout, we are desperate so Ralph will probably pull Dubby with five minutes to go so we can go for the winning goal.

We are seeing a nice balance in penaltys from the refs, man we should put the pedal down and hit them down the middle and pile on their goalie.

It works to our favor to increase the number of penaltys tonight so lets get the hell moving.

We need to get aggressive, on the PK, 5 on 5, everywhere, we need our d-men to rush the puck out immediatly and we need to attack them with long breaKout passes and give and gos down the middle with support.

We need to speed the game up, the Preds are trying to slow it down on us. we need faster playaction initiation when we have possesion of the puck a faster transition to offense.

We might want to ask ourselves why we signed Brown in a game like this one, this is our last grasp after all.

Maybe if we stap a 5lb weight to Halls forearm
we will stop taking those weak-kneed waste of a possesion wrister he uses, my Grandmother hits harder with her purse than he hits the net with that shot form the perimeter, he needs to take it to the middle or give it to someone who will, or grow some balls and take it there himself, Hall is looking really gunshy this year, he has lost his threat of going to the net off rushes, even Hemmer does that, Eberle does that, but not Taylor Hall, he thinks the job is done to soon and needs to STOP that rebound play he is trying to hit, we are not coming into the zone fast enough through the n-zone to use that play, just take it to the net at the end of the rush, jesus, or we need to put MPS up there and drop Hall down.

Where did I say they should stick to status quo? I said they can change low-end guys, but that doesn't alter the major weaknesses of the team. They have to switch key parts of their roster, not edge guys, if they want to improve.

Toronto hasn't made the playoffs in 7 years and now they are great. Okay.

Montreal missed one year...they didn't trade away veterans for picks, and have those picks help them. They signed Prust, brought in two rookies, shipped Cole for Ryder and got a healthy Markov.

So your comparables have no bearing on your strategy to replace perimeter vets with better perimeter veterans. And unless the Oilers get vets who can play key roles, they won't improve very quickly. You need vets who can make a difference not just 4th line guys or 3rd pairing defenders.

Okay...I guess it's time for rebuild 101.

Lets take a look at what Dean Lombardi did in LA (and what Tallon did in Chicago although you can look up those transactions your self.

Dean Lombardi took over the reins in LA in 2006.

For those not inclined to look it up, that was 6 years before he won a cup.

The team he inherited has finished out of the playoffs for 3 consevutive seasons and it took him a year to convoke LA management that he needed their support to burn it to the ground an rebuild.

The team he inherited had the following roster:

D:

Lubomir Visnovsky

Joe Corvo

Brent Sopel

Mattias Nordstrom

Tim Gleason

Nathan Dempsey

Mike Weaver

F:

Craig Conroy

Pavol Demitra

Alex Frolov

Mark Parrish

Derek Armstrong

Sean Avery

Eric Belanger

Dustin Brown (just drafted)

Jeremy Roenick

Tom Kotsopolous

Jeff Cowan

George Parros

G:

Mathieu Garon

Jason Labarbera

You will of course note that only one player on theta team, Dustin Brown, who was drafted in 2003, remained with the cup winning team.

Jonathan Quick was drafted in 2005, a year before Lombardi took over but was hardly a sure bet at that time.

Anze Kopitar was also in the system after being drafted 11th overall in 2005.

Once Lombardi had convinced his ownership that a full rebuild was necessary, he began stockpiling picks, some his own but he also started moving out underperforming veterans for picks and younger players.

He selected the following players with his multiple draft picks.
(I'll only include players who have had some impact in the NHL

Nice PP, even if they didnt connect, puck possesion, support, and good decisions w the passes. Yak looked beastally good, not like an 18yo, oh ya hes not(unless your RK)

I agree , and it needs to produce goals tonight, special teams will be the difference tonight.

Yakupov is a nice addition, he is a physical player and adds a nice dimension to the line he is on. Right now we need him to be with Gagner learaning how to be a pro athlete at the NHL level. In two years he will be playing with Nuge regularly without a doubt.

All we need to do is implement the three pass rule, never more than 3 passes on the PP without a shot, it is retarded to overpass on the PP when you have a numbers advantage in a sport where a numbers advantage is the most lethal advantage you can find. We need to definately work it around but we also need a defined limit to the wasted time, we need a quick set up and then we need to use that numbers advantage to get to rebounds, this means we want our perimeter shots coming from the middle of the ice not the wings, no angled perimeter shots, just straight down the pipes so we get better rebounds and support.